With an aim to create the Next generation IT and Cloud professionals, Amazon.com, the biggest e-commerce company via its Amazon Web Services has launched its flagship program called ‘AWS Educate’.

The program is intended to provide real-world technological insight inside the classroom, and prepare students to join the cloud workforce. This is a free service for the educational institutes, students and instructors.

With the proliferation of the cloud technology, the business scenario around the world has changed. What we see today is the rapid infusion of cloud technology with genomics, startups, and innovation. The practice of cloud computing has transcended the app development scene and has transformed the way business is done. Amazon’s AWS Educate empowers instructors in the classroom to accept newer method of teaching with the new innovative tools. This process aims to develop the skill set of students who then can design, develop and operate apps using AWS Cloud.

There are AWS credits that are applicable to both member and non-member institutions. While in a member institution a student gets USD 100, an educator gets USD 200. In a non-member institution the student and the educator get USD 35 and USD 75, respectively. Apart from these educators have access to labs, AWS essential e-learning courses, free access to AWS content, free access to contents contributed by leading educators, educator collaboration portal access, virtual and in person events, and access to private and public discussion forums.

On the other hand, students get free access to labs; free access to AWS content for homework, labs, or self-study; access to student portal; virtual and in-person event to gather information, share best practices, and network.

Speaking about the AWS program, Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Worldwide Public Sector, AWS, said, “For years, the AWS educational grants program has put cloud technology in the hands of educators and students, giving them the ability to put big ideas into action. We’ve seen students develop assistive computer vision technology in collaboration with the National Federation of the Blind, and aspiring entrepreneurs take a web startup from conception to launch within 60 hours.”

One can use the AWS credits to access Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), Amazon CloudFront, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Elastic MapReduce (Amazon EMR), Amazon Redshift, and Amazon Glacier.

There are more than 100 educators who have contributed to the AWS Educate program. Dr.MajdSakr, computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Professor Zack Ives at the University of Pennsylvania are among those contributors who have enriched the course content.

One of the beneficiaries of the AWS Educate program is the Los Angeles High Impact Information Technology, Entertainment & Entrepreneurship, and Communications Hubs (LA HI-TECH). It happens to be a regional consortium of eight community colleges that intends to build and sustaina productive workforce. It has access to AWS Educate program in which students learn the essential; cloud computing techniques and applications.

AWS was launched in 2006 as part of the Amazon to create a strong workforce in the cloud computing sector. It started its operations in the US, Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Ireland, Japan, and Singapore. For more information and to apply for the AWS program, interested organization or students can click here.